Favorites
by ravenshell
Summary: A turtle-tots story. Raphael loses his favorite toy. Leo offers a little solace.


**a/n:** An entry for RachelErica's Turtle Tots Contest II at TurtleTot-Literature on deviantArt .

x-x-x-x-x

"I told you it wouldn't float," Donatello said snidely, and was punched in the mouth for it. It sent the smartass off sniffling, but Raphael didn't care, because he had more important things on his five-year old mind… namely, that he'd dropped his favorite toy car in the rushing runoff waters just outside the lair, and it'd sunk and been carried away in the torrent.

He knew very well that he wasn't supposed to be out here… Splinter had given explicit instructions that the boys were not allowed to leave the lair while he was out. But how could four curious little turtles be expected to stay in the boring old subway station when there was a big, exciting river coursing past at the next juncture? They'd all gone out to see the cataract once their father was gone, dip fingers and toes in the water, and throw in bits of sticks and trash to watch them float away. Leonardo quickly became nervous that they were disobeying their father and coaxed his brothers back home, but Raphael wasn't done playing in the stream.

As soon as they got back to their damp little subway station, Raph rooted around in their toybox for his favorite toy car. In fact, his _only_ toy car… Toys for the little turtles were few, previously-owned, and often broken. The little yellow taxi was Raphael's pride and joy. It had had all of its wheels when Master Splinter had found it, and still had three of them now. And, it was his favorite color. He clutched it in his paw and ran back to the turnstiles.

"Raphie, where're you going? We're s'posed to stay here!" Leo called anxiously.

Raph waved his prize in the air. "I'm gonna go play boats!"

Donnie gave him a skeptical look. "That's a car…"

" 's a boat for now," the emerald turtle growled back at the know-it-all. He dashed out, Donnie trailing behind him, calling warnings that metal matchbox cars were too dense and not buoyant enough to be boats.

"I wanna play too!" Mikey squealed, running for the milk crate their toys were kept in. He rifled around for a 'boat' to use, but came up empty-handed. He held up his teddy bear forlornly. "Mr. Bear-Bear, you're gonna have to be Mr. Boat-Boat today…"

Leo caught his youngest brother under the arms as Mikey made a bid for the exit as well. "No no no no no…"

"But, Leo, I wanna goooo!" the smallest whined, big crocodile tears brimming in his little turtle eyes.

Leo sighed and tried distraction. "Why don't we stay here and we can make origami boats instead? It'll be better than getting Mr. Bear-Bear all wet."

"…awright…" Mikey moped, still pouting as his older brother scrounged up some sheets of newspaper and began showing the younger how to fold them into boat shapes. The two of them looked up a couple of minutes later as Donnie trotted back in wiping his eyes and rubbing his bruising beak.

x-x-x-x-x

Raphael stared down into the murky flow, on his hands and knees, hoping he'd catch a faint glimpse of yellow, but there was no seeing through the turgid water. He stuck an arm down into it, seeing if he could feel around on the bottom for the car, but to no avail… even up to his shoulder, he couldn't feel the concrete from here. He withdrew, brushing the water and muck from his arm, shivering. The autumn rainwater wasn't just fast, it was also _cold_. He'd considered jumping in, but even _he_ could see that it was too dangerous to try.

Gone; it was gone. Probably never to be seen again. And his smart brother had tried to warn him, and all Raphie had done was smack him in the face for it. Now he felt twice as awful; sorry for himself for losing his cab, and guilty for hitting Donnie when he'd tried to keep Raphael from making the mistake he eventually and inevitably had. He sat forlornly on the concrete pathway, pulling his knees up to his chest and scrubbing at the tears that trickled down his cheeks, now and then emitting a mournful sob.

"Raphie?" came the soft voice of his older brother.

"I wasn't crying!" Raph declared preemptively, sniffling nonetheless. "Crying's for babies."

Leo gave him a sympathetic smirk. "I know. Come on… let's go back to the lair now."

"I lost my car!" he stated bleakly, shoving his lower jaw out in a downhearted pout.

"Yeah, Donnie told me."

"It was the best one!" he wailed as they walked back. "It was my favorite!"

"I know," Leo acknowledged consolingly. He threw an arm across his brother's neck, leading him back home, Raphael staring at his feet the whole way.

Once back in the lair, he took up a sitting position against the wall and sunk his head down halfway into his shell, sulking. Mikey and Don both looked over to him concernedly. Mikey trotted up to him. "Hey, Raphie! Come make boats with us!" he encouraged, waving a sheet of newsprint. Raph just grunted and looked away, head sinking in further. He'd had enough of 'boats' for a while.

Leo watched him for a moment, then trotted off to his room, emerging again with something clutched in his fist, which he brought to the pouty emerald turtle. "Here." He dropped the object into Raphael's hands as the younger held them out, awed.

"The red one?" Raph gaped.

"You can have it, if you want."

Raph ran a three-fingered hand over the little cherry-red speedster, with its orange and black flame-job along the sides. He'd always admired it, envied Leo for it, even… though he thought his little yellow cab was way better. The red car was a little smashed and the plastic windows were all broken, and it didn't roll well—probably the result of a real car running over it—but it was still eye-catching. He eyed Leo querulously. "Isn't it your favorite?"

Leonardo grinned and said nothing.

"What'll you use, though?"

The eldest shrugged nonchalantly. "I'll find another favorite."

More tears welled up in Raph's eyes. He squeezed them closed, stood, and let himself fall forward into Leo's plastron where, as almost an afterthought, he also put his arms around his big brother's shell.

x-x-x-x-x

"Get off my back, Leo! This city ain't so big, you gotta crawl inside my shell with me?!"

"Well, if you'd actually follow orders, _for once_ , I wouldn't have to keep such a close eye on you! If you keep second-guessing me and running off to do your own thing, you're going to get somebody seriously hurt, or worse!"

"I saw my opening! I had to take it! Those Kraang ships were powering up… they would've flanked us if I hadn't—!"

"No, you did _not!_ What you _had_ to do, and _should have done_ , was stick to the plan! Now thanks to your carelessness, _once again_ , Mikey's injured, and Don's going to have to waste more medical supplies patching him up, that we wouldn't have to waste if you'd just done as you were told!"

"It... it's not _that_ bad, Leo—"

"Shush, Mikey. Raph—!"

"Shove it, Lameonardo! You think just 'cause you're Splinter's favorite you know everything! Well, I ain't buyin' it!"

"Where are you going?!"

"BED! Unless you've got some _other_ ambush to lead us into at the moment, oh, _fearless leader!_ "

Raphael threw his bedroom door open hard enough that it slammed against the wall and bounced back in time for him to step in and slam it, hard enough to bring dust down from the ceiling. The red-masked turtle yanked both sai from his belt, chucking both at his dartboard, effectively stapling it to the wall. He made to kick over one of the cymbals of his drum set, only to notice he hadn't righted it from kicking it over two days prior from another fight that ran pretty much the same way, with pretty much the same outcome. With a snarl of disgust at this slight of insult to injury, he threw himself belly down on his bed.

It was like Leo didn't think anyone had good ideas but himself. If his brother wasn't such a tight-ass, Raph wouldn't always be trying to break away. If Leader-nardo would give him a little more slack, he wouldn't feel like he had to rebel just to gain a little breathing space. But every time Raph gained an inch, his brother had to prove that he could take it right back, because he was a spoiled brat that had to have everything his way. You'd think he was five instead of seventeen.

He wasn't staring at anything specific for several minutes as he lay there brooding, sulking, but he eventually found his eyes drawn to black and orange flames on a sparkly, cherry red finish on the top shelf of his bedside bookcase.

x-x-x-x-x

Arms wrapped around his older brother's shell, the treasured red model car in his hand, Raphie felt tears streaming down his cheeks again, and this time, he didn't care or try to hide them. He just squashed himself as close to Leo's plastron as he could. "You're my favorite brother," he choked out. From that point on, he had a new favorite color, too.

Leo chuckled, patting Raph's carapace gently. "All right, all right… I love you too…"

x-x-x-x-x

Raph stared at the little car for a long while, then reached out and scraped it back and forth along the top of the bookshelf with one finger, with a contemplative snort.

After a while, maybe in the morning, he'd try to sort things out with his big brother.


End file.
